Method for processing animal pelts



April 1969 5. J. PINGREE ETAL 3,435,641

METHOD FOR PROCESSING ANIMAL PEL'IS Filed Aug. 17. 1967 INVENTORS SAMUELJ. PINGRE E Gamma rum BY wt ATTO R N EY United States Patent 3,435,641METHOD FOR PROCESSING ANIMAL PELTS Samuel J. Pingree, St. Louis, Mo.,and George A. Batman, Greenville, S.C., assignors to The Fouke Company,a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 17, 1967, Ser. No. 661,246 Int. Cl.Cl4b N00 US. CI. 69-22 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A process forremoving guard hair from pelts of fur seal which have been previouslyconditioned wherein a gripping substance such as an adhesive, athermal-setting material, or an epoxy resin, on a backing is brought incontact with the guard hair on the skin. The guard hair adheres to orembeds in the gripping substance so that when the backing is parted fromthe pelt or skin the guard hair will be pulled free from the epidermis.When thermal-setting materials are used, they are applied to the hair ata temperature above their solidifying temperatures, but before the peltand thermal-setting material are parted the temperature of the grippingsubstance is reduced below its solidifying temperature. Thereafter thethermal-setting material and the embedded guard hair can be separatedand the thermal-setting material be used again.

This invention relates to processing of animal pelts and, moreparticularly, to a process of removing the guard hair from fur sealskins.

Fur seal pelts prepared from the skins of Alaska or other fur seal are afavorite pelt for use in fur garments. These skins are preliminarilyprocessed after being taken from the seal carcasses and thereafter aredelivered to a fur company for further processing into elegant furs.Such skins include the familiar soft velvet-like fur, but that fur isconcealed or shielded by somewhat longer and much coarser guard hair. Inpreparing seal pelts suitable for use in garments, this furtherprocessing generally includes removal of the guard hair,

The current method of guard hair removal involves considerable manuallabor of a highly skilled nature. Generally the skins are conditioned sothat the guard hair is loosened. Thereafter a skilled workman by the useof a specially designed knife removes the guard hair from the skin.Inasmuch as a skilled operator can unhair, at the most, about one skinper forty minutes, the

current unhairing process is costly and time-consuming.

The present invention involves the use of various gripping substancesfor removing guard hair from seal skins. The substance is generaly firstapplied to a suitable backing and then brought against the guard hair ofthe seal skin. The guard hair adheres to or embeds in the substance andwhen the backing is withdrawn or parted from the skin the guard haircomes with it.

Among the several objects of the present invention may be noted theprovision of a method for removing guard hair from seal skins which israpid and reduces the need for skilled manual labor to a minimum; theprovision of a method for removing guard hair which is simple andinexpensive; and the provision of a method for removing guard hair whichdoes ont adversely affect or remove the fur. Other objects and featureswill be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the methods here- Patented Apr. 1,1969 ice inafter described, the scope of the invention being indicatedin the following claims.

In the accompanying drawings, in which several of various possibleembodiments of the invention are illustrated,

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a seal skin mounted upon asupport and having its guard hair in contact with a gripping substancecarried by a backing material; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an apparatus for removing guard hairfrom seal skins, which apparatus embodies the process of the presentinvention.

Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding partsthroughout the several views of the drawmgs.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, 2 designates a seal skin orpelt having an epidermis 4, fur 6, and guard hair 8. As previouslynoted, guard hair 8 is considerably longer and coarser than fur 6 and,in fact, shields or obscures fur 6. After having been conditioned in theusual way, as by soaking in brine followed by drying the hair and fur atan elevated temperature, pelt 2 is spread and stretched across a. platenor other suitable supporting member 10. The flesh side of skin 2 is incontact with the upper surface of member 10 so that guard. hair 8 andfur 6 extend upwardly.

Shiftably mounted above supporting member 10 for movement to and fromthe upper surface of supporting member 10 is backing element 12 having agripping substance 14 on its downwardly presented face. A number ofmaterials have been found suitable for use as gripping substance 14 inthe present invention and one or a combination of these grippingsubstances is applied to backing element 12. These may be applied inliquid form by brushing, spraying, rolling, dipping or as a solid inpowdered, granular or sheet form to adhere to element 12 when heated orby other suitable method. Among the various gripping substances 14 foundsuitable for the present invention are:

(a) Water or solvent dispersed or dissolved materials which harden tomaintain considerable tackiness upon drying, such as LepagesPhotoengraving glue #35, Permacel Photengraving glue #l044.

(b) Thermal-setting materials which harden or maintain considerabletackiness upon cooling, exemplified by Elvax Resin #210 distributed byDuPont, and LV-355 Hot Melt distributed by Stein-Hall.

(c) Materials which upon setting develop or maintain tackiness such asepoxy resins. Suitable epoxy resins are Epo-n No. 815 and its curingagent Epon T-l, both marketed by the Shell Oil Company.

Pressure-sensitive materials such as adhesives and tapes have also beenfound suitable for use as gripping substance 14. In particular, No. 131fiat paper backing tape marketed by Behr Manning and No. 6376 Kraftfiber reinforced tape distributed by Mystic are suitable. The formertape has a tensile strength of 50 lbs. per inch width and an adhesivestrength of 65 oz. per inch width while the latter has a tensilestrength of 50 lbs. per inch width and an adhesive strength of oz. perinch width.

The gripping substance may be applied to backing element 12 just priorto use, or this may be done at a convenient time and place previouslyand the coated backing used when desired. Once gripping substance 14 isapplied to backing element 12, the latter can be brought into contactwith skin 2 on supporting member 10. Gripping substance 14 comes intoengagement with guard hair 8 and the latter adheres to or embeds in theformer so that when backing element 12 is withdrawn or lifted away fromsupport member 10, skin 2 will remain aflixed to backing element 12.Thereafter, skin 2 is parted from backing element 12 or vice versa andwhen this is done guard hair 8 will be pulled from epidermis 4. This ispreferably accomplished by peeling skin 2 away from backing element 12,commencing with the tail-end.

The particular gripping substance 14 employed should not be of such athin consistency that it flows into the fur itself, for this wouldresult in an undesirable removal of fur as well as guard hair. Moreover,it may be desirable to apply at least limited pressure to backingelement 12 to insure better adherence to or embedding in grippingsubstance 14. Gripping substance 14 may be applied to guard hair 8 bybrushing, spraying, rolling, or the like, instead of to backing element12, in which case backing element 12 is brought into engagement withgripping substance 14 on skin 2. It is also possible to apply grippingsubstance 14 to both backing element 12 and guard hair 8. Backingelement 12 can be a rigid member such as a plate, or it can be aflexible material such as a fabric.

Referring now to FIG. 2, thermal-setting materials may be used as agripping substance in a somewhat more complex form of the presentprocess. Seal skin 2 is spread out and stretched across a bottom plate20 with the flesh side in contact with the upper surface thereof so thatfur 6 and guard hair 8 extend upwardly. It has been found that skin 2 atthis stage of processing will adhere to plate 20 if it is metal. Plate20 is mounted on a suitable support 22 with a plurality of springs 23interposed therebetween. Support 22 includes an elevating assembly 24for raising and lowering plate 20.

Disposed in upwardly spaced relation to bottom plate 20 is a heat sink26 which is connected to and maintained at reduced temperatures by arefrigeration unit 28. Suspended from and located beneath the sidemargins of heat sink 26 are a pair of parallel guide rails 29 which arespaced apart a distance greater than the width of bottom plate 20.

At a remote location a matching upper plate 30 which is sufiicient insize to cover skin 2 is heated by an oven, heat lamps, or any othersuitable means 31, to an elevated temperature and, unless previouslyapplied, thereafter a thermal-setting material 32 is sprayed, rolled, orbrushed onto one surface thereof. The temperature of upper plate 30should be sufiicient to maintain thermalsetting material 32 in a liquidor semi-liquid state. Among the thermal-setting materials suitable forcovering upper plate 30 are Elvax Resin #210 distributed by DuPont, andHot Melt LV-355 sold by Stein-Hall.

After heated upper plate 30 is coated with thermal-setting material 32,it is inverted and may be passed through a scraper assembly 34 locatedadjacent the ends of guide rails 29. Scraper assembly 34 includes driveand guide rollers 36, 38, and a scraper blade 40, over which the coatedsurface of plate 30 passes so as to remove excess material 32 as well asto evenly distribute it in a uniform coating. Thereafter, plate 30 ispassed onto guide rails 29 with its coated surface presented downwardlyso that upper plate 30 is interposed in spaced relation between heatsink 26 and skin 2 on bottom plate 20.

Elevating assembly 24 is then actuated and raises bottom plate 20,bringing seal skin 2 into contact with the coating of thermal-settingmaterial 32 on upper plate 30. Further advancement of plate 20 liftsplate 30 off rails 29 and brings its opposite or the upper surface intoabutment with heat sink 26. Springs 23 at this point compress slightlyand evenly distribute the force applied to bottom plate 20 as asubstantially uniform pressure across the entire skin 2. Once skin 2engages the coating of thermal-setting material 32, the latter will flowaround guard hair 8 so that it is thoroughly embedded therein. Thethickness of the coating of material 32, the temperature of upper plate30, and the pressure applied to plate 30, are all such thatthermal-setting material 32 will flow around that part of guard hair 8located beyond fur 6 but will not flow into fur 6.

Heat sink 26 absorbs heat from upper plate 30 and thereby depresses itstemperature. The temperature of plate 30 is reduced below thesolidifying temperature of thermal-setting material 32, causing it toset-up or solidify with guard hair 8 embedded in it. While upper plate30 is being cooled it is desirable to maintain bottom plate 20 at aslightly elevated temperature.

Subsequently, upper plate 30 with skin 2 adhering thereto is removedfrom bottom plate 20, inverted, and skin 2 is stripped or parted fromupper plate 30 by pulling from the tail-end toward the head-end. Thispulls guard hair 8 from skin 2 leaving fur 6 unobstructed and guard hair8 embedded in the solidified thermal-setting material 32 adhering toupper plate 30. It has been found that approximately 90% by weight ofguard hair 8 can be removed in one pass by the foregoing process. Theremaining guard hair 8 is extracted quickly on a beam in theconventional manner by an operator manipulating a beaming knife or othertool, or by repeating to some extent the above-described process.

As an economy measure some types of thermal-setting material can bereclaimed and used again. Thi may be accomplished, for example, bysubjecting the thermalsetting material with the hair embedded therein toimpact, dislodging it from the backing on which it is carried andpulverizing it. A relatively strong air stream may then be used toseparate the pulverized thermal-setting material and the hair.

With other types of thermal-setting material a solvent recovery processmay be utilized. In this instance the thermal-setting material isdissolved away from the hair and subsequently recovered from thesolvent.

Since the recovery measures outlined above are conventional and do notform a necessary part of the present invention, they are not defined indetail.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects of theinvention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.

As various changes could be made in the above methods without departingform the scope of the invention, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What claimed is:

1. A process for removing guard hair from a fur seal skin withoutsubstantial removal of fur therefrom, said process comprisingconditioning the skin to loosen the guard hair, applying a grippingsubstance to the guard hair while avoiding substantial contact betweenthe gripping substance and the fur, and parting the skin from thegripping substance, said substance, upon the parting, pulling guardhairs out of the skin and leaving the air on the skin.

2. A process according to claim 1 in which the gripping substance is anadhesive.

3. A process according to claim 1 in which the gripping substance is anepoxy resin.

4. A process according to claim 1 in which the gripping substance is aliquid which hardens and maintains tackiness upon drying.

5. A process according to claim 1 in which the gripping substance is athermal-setting material.

6. A process according to claim 5 wherein the thermalsetting material isapplied to the skin at a temperature above its solidifying temperatureso that the guard hair will adhere to and embed in the thermal-settingmaterial.

7. A process according to claim 6 wherein the thermalsetting material iscooled below its solidifying temperature before the skin is partedtherefrom.

8. A process according to claim 7 and further characterized byreclaiming the solid thermal-setting material after it has been partedfrom the skin, the guard hair being separated from the thermal-settingmaterial.

9. A process according to claim 1 in which the gripping substance iscarried on a backing element when the skin is parted therefrom.

10. A process according to claim 9 in which the skin is supported on asupporting surface when the gripping substance is applied thereto.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 416,151 12/1889 Gomess 6922X 6984,940 2/ 1911 Landau 15668 2,693,610 11/ 1954 Hensley. 2,708,7615/1955 Bergquist.

FOREIGN PATENTS 6,454 1900 Great Britain. 3,647 1889 Great Britain.

ALFRED R. GUEST, Primary Examiner.

